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Qualitative Research
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Dynamics of the `field': multiple standpoints, narrative and shifting positionality in multisited research

Urvashi Soni-Sinha

University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, urvashi{at}uwindsor.ca

The article contributes to the epistemological debates in feminism through the analysis of multisited research on jewellery production in India. The multisited research focuses on different localities — Noida Export Processing Zone (NEPZ), Delhi and villages of Medinipur having direct and indirect links to the global market. It analyses how the multiple sites structured by gender, class and age hierarchies reveal the multiple and fluid standpoints of different actors. The multiple standpoints of different actors feed into discursive practices of a complete exclusion of women from the production process of handmade jewellery in NEPZ, their marginal presence in Delhi, and their invisibility despite preponderance in the villages of Medinipur. These narratives constitute the subjectivity of men as `breadwinners' and of women as `housewives'. However, some women contest the discourses around marginalization of their work and present points of break in the configuration of power, questioning their subject position as `housewives'. Weaving these complex webs of narratives, I am reflexive of my multiple positionality as Indian, non-Bengali, elite, woman and the fluidity of my position as an insider/outsider in the `field'.

Key Words: discourse • India • insider/outsider • multiple standpoints • multisited research

Qualitative Research, Vol. 8, No. 4, 515-537 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1468794108093898
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